Oil Prices May Be Cut … Finally!
Thursday
Jul 31, 2008
In perhaps what is a piece of good news over the last couple of months, countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea are contemplating on reducing oil prices soon. This is considering the current oil prices continue to decrease though. In the past weeks, the global price of oil in the market has been falling and this is good news for the world that has to survive in these hard times of high oil prices.
But while that is a great sign, local distributors still have the last say. There are some local oil companies that have been thinking twice about on whether to cut down oil prices since they are still wary of deficits and losses to which they would want to make up for. The thing is, are these claims legitimate enough to hang on to the current oil prices?
Consumers have called for government intervention to make necessary measures in auditing the books of these local oil distributors. Apparently it seems that this is the logical way to go to certify the claims that they are indeed on the red. And while that is the case, don’t expect the consumers to be as understanding.
On the side of developing alternative fuel, they should not stop. Providing alternative source of fuel is something that can still be beneficial regardless if the current oil prices do go down to manageable levels for consumers. Biodiesel and ethanol alternative still pose a good choice for people especially since they are a lot cheaper and may even cost less once regular oil sets its mark to normal.
Malaysia may reduce fuel prices in the weeks ahead if global oil prices continue to fall, a senior finance ministry official said Thursday.
The government hiked petrol prices 41 percent in June to ease the burden of spiralling energy subsidies, but crude oil prices have fallen around 20 dollars from record highs above 147 dollars per barrel hit earlier in July.
The official said “if oil prices remain between 120 dollars a barrel and 125 dollars a barrel for two weeks,” then Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi could announce a cut in fuel costs in the weeks ahead.